Timm Hudspeth used to be a vocal community activist who ran for the Columbia School Board in 1991 and had a KOPN/89.5 FM radio show.

But now, writing is his only activism. Hudspeth said he got tired of the mainstream media giving the last word to his opposition, so he switched gears.

“It made me stop and think, why do I do this?” Hudspeth said. “Instead of talking to the newspaper, I just started my own newspaper.”

Hudspeth looked at the problems he saw in Columbia — racism, unemployment, crime and a lack of role models for youth — and decided he had to be heard. He has published The Community Voice, an African-American newspaper known as “Columbia’s voice of diversity,” on and off for about 21 years.